A Letter to Start It All Again
by rubyphantom56
Summary: All it took was a letter to regain that trust and slight friendship to become molded into love.


A/N: Another oneshot from the files to put up here while you wait for another update on a story.

Disclaimer: The usual; I don't own it, never have, never will.

Summary: All it took was a letter to regain that trust and slight friendship to become molded into love.

Title: A Letter to Start It All Again

Draco's POV

_Draco,_

_It wasn't that I hadn't been able to keep up contact with you, in fact, I chose not to. I suppose that it was a type of spite towards you after all these years. You asked me to try to keep in contact with you after the war, but I didn't see a reason to. You didn't show me until the battle that you could change, and I didn't think that I'd ever be able to see the real you. I regret not doing so now, considering the amounts of time that passed. Fifteen years is entirely too long to wait for a letter, and I give my humblest apologies regarding this promise. If you decide not to reply to this letter, I fully understand, but I'm asking just once to be given the chance to know you. _

_Harry Potter_

It wasn't that I hadn't wanted to reply to the letter, but I felt I had no choice but to reply. I'd waited for fifteen years to get this letter, and I had never given up hope that he would send me a letter. It's what happens when one is in love with another. I shouldn't let it bother me that he chose not to write letters to me, but it did in some ways. I understood, considering the number of times that he had no reason at all to trust me. It was only natural that he wouldn't send me a letter until many years later. I am aged, crippled from the war, and don't feel like living nearly as much as I used to, but I decided to reply to that letter with one of my own, with one that would mean so much to me if he replied to it as well.

I'd watched you walk away more times than I cared to remember, but then again, you had your reasons. It was only fitting that I wouldn't turn you away, or walk away from you, so I wrote you the letter. Only natural that I would.

_Harry,_

_Since when are we on a first name basis? Joking, just so you know. I thought that perhaps you would never send me a letter, so when I got up this morning, and saw your white owl sitting on my chair in the dining room, I knew that you had written me at last. Should I tell you how happy it made me to know you kept your promise? Should I tell you that I thought you were never going to keep me that promise, or should I tell you the feelings that coursed through my veins realizing that you had written me? I suppose I'll tell you if you truly desire to know, but you'd need to reply to the letter for me to truly know. I do hope you'll reply considering how much I miss having company. _

_Hoping to hear from you soon,_

Draco Malfoy 

I had quickly sealed the letter with the Malfoy seal my father left me in his will and sent it back off with the white owl with a smile on my face. Perhaps it wouldn't be so long between letters again.

_Draco,_

_I missed your sarcastic remarks. I'm not sure why exactly I missed them, but I know that I did. I want to know all those things you mentioned in your last letter, mostly just to satisfy my insatiable curiosity. I know you have no company anymore, and I'm sorry for all the loss you experienced. I remember in the papers that when your mother finally died, you didn't shed one tear at the funeral. Was it because you knew it was coming, or did she make you promise not to cry where people could catch it, or was it out of your own pride that you didn't cry? I have so many questions, and no answers for them because I'm a prideful idiot who couldn't let go of past bullying and so forth. Can you forgive my negligence towards you Draco? I hope you can, seeing as how I'll probably grovel if you don't right away._

_Harry Potter_

_Harry,_

_Must you be so formal in your letters? You may treat me as you did before as long as it's a type of polite teasing. Well in answer to your many questions in the last letter, I suppose I might as well answer them in the order you asked. _

_Well, knowing you kept your promise to me made me happier than I can really convey in any form at all, let alone writing it to you. I saw it and it made my heart burst in happiness. That's all that I can really tell you because I have no other words for it. _

_Never. Never for one second did I think that you wouldn't keep that promise to me. I always believed that you would send me a letter one day. Perhaps you'd write it because you wanted to talk to me, or you were bored and had nothing better to do, or you wouldn't realize why exactly you wrote it. Let me just tell you know that no matter the reason for it, I'm happy you wrote me a letter. _

_There's more to it than what I can tell you in a letter because some of the feelings I have are…well oddly personal to me. I'd have to get to know you better before I answered that last question before the one about my mother. _

_My mother. She was dying and all of us in the family knew it. The 'family', meaning me, because Father is dead and my aunt was killed by Severus on the battlefield, there was no one else she could tell. I knew about the disease that would claim her life and she told me that if I were to cry, to do it in private where the notion of me crying wouldn't taint my family name. But I did cry, the cameras just never caught it. I cried my heart out inside myself, and the emotion was never conveyed on my face. _

_It reminds me something my father once said to me. "Draco, you must learn to hold in the pain, no matter how excruciating it may become. You must show the world your strength and pretend you are a shell, my son. Shells have no emotion, so never become less than a shell." I lived by that my entire life, a lesson that I've never forgotten. _

_Your last question, asking me about forgiveness, I have decided upon an answer. I will forgive you Harry, for I know you had your reasons for not keeping up any contact with me. I have a question for you now. I know you married, but there was never anything in the papers that would convey if your marriage and continued to be successful after all these years. Perhaps you'll indulge my curiosity in that regard._

_Yours truly,_

_Draco Malfoy_

This had to be the life that I was waiting for. Where I got to get to know him without malice or despair from us both. It was what I waited for, and something I'd often dreamed of. They were nothing compared to the dreams I had of him kissing and touching me though. These dreams… How I loved them before he'd actually come into my life.

And so the letters would continue to progress like this, just like this, until one day I got this letter from Harry that would make my heart spin.

_Draco, _

_I think we've been talking through these letters long enough. Eight months since we started this writing to one another and I want to see you in person again. Can you grant that wish?_

_Harry Potter_

I was speechless, unable to refuse the request. I wrote back telling him the address of the mansion so he could floo over. Three days later, we were sitting in my parlor with glasses of wine and talking in person for the first time in almost sixteen years.

I was also more than nervous when he finally leaned forward to ask me the most serious question that he'd asked me in my entire life. "Draco, you never told me the answer to that first question so long ago. Will you ever tell me the real reason you were so happy to get that letter from me?"

I swallowed hard, but set up a defiant face. "Only if you answer me one question Harry. One question and then I'll answer yours with no holds barred upon it. Agreed?" You nod and I take another breath to settle myself. "How do you feel about me? I'm talking all senses here Harry, and I'm demanding honesty from you."

I see him flinch slightly and a light blush tint your cheeks. "You know my sexuality Draco. I'd lie if I didn't find you attractive, despite your flaws. I view you as an incredible friend to have, and I know that I won't lose that friendship. The only thing that I can never be sure of is the romance part. I know that I could easily fall in love with you…or, I have fallen in love with you, but part of me wonders if it even matters as long as I have you as a friend."

My jaw drops near the end of that hearing the words that I never thought I'd hear come from him. Before he looked up again, my features became as soft as I could let them and I tilted his chin up a little with my hand. "Harry. Harry look at me," I whispered to him, my eyes glowing with love. When he didn't, I pushed his chin up with my hand and finally he looked at me. "Harry, you don't know how happy I am to hear those words coming from you." I paused, as he looked at me wide-eyed. I bit my lip and continued. "The reason I was so happy to receive that letter from you is because I am in love with you, and have been since before the war. That's also the reason that I never gave up hope on you Harry. I've waited so long to hear those words. I just never thought you'd say them to me." My eyes are brimming with tears, I realize it, and Harry just took my hand in his and kissed it.

"So, I wasn't crazy to hope for more?"

"Our lives are half over you realize. And I won't be the ideal bed partner either. I'm warning you now; I steal the covers."

Harry laughs and hugs me tightly against him. I close my eyes and take another sip of wine. "I think I can handle that Draco. We can always just get more covers. I know there's a limit to the amount of covers one person can steal away from another." I chuckle and he feels it.

When Harry pulls back and smiles at me, I knew that in this moment, my life couldn't become anymore perfect than it has already, and that I never want it to change. As Harry kisses me, I close my eyes and finally feel this content part that I've longed for. My life can now be complete.

The seeds of promise sworn have now been fulfilled 

_As my heart takes you in with every breath_

_I know that this is the dream I've waited for_

_And nothing can be more perfect_

_Don't let me down, my love_

_For this world is what we make it_

_And I plan to make it completely wonderful_

_With you always by my side _

Fins


End file.
